The Shutdown of Church Services During COVID-19 in South Africa: A Social Work Perspective

ABSTRACT

From a perspective of social work, this chapter analyses the negative effect of the temporary closure of churches to stop the spread of Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) on classical conservative Pentecostals in South Africa. The chapter argues that physical church meetings provide spiritual resources needed to cope with life's challenges and problems. Therefore, the closure of churches left the Pentecostal extremely vulnerable. Social workers are challenged to learn from Pentecostals the importance of people's reliance on church meetings for spiritual resources needed to overcome life's problems. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.